1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a storage medium processing system in which a toll of a vehicle running on a toll road is calculated by using a storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional system, radio cards serving as storage media are carried on vehicles running on a toll road, and tolls are calculated on the basis of data recorded on the radio cards. In this system, read data from each radio card must be processed in a one-to-one correspondence with write data. That is, in a conventional storage medium processing system, write data for a radio card is generated and transmitted in accordance with an order of formation of read data from radio cards (an order of entrance of vehicles into the booth) at a booth (passage point) which is installed at each main point of a toll road and checks the passage of vehicles, and read resultant data is received from the radio card, thereby completing one cycle of processing. A plurality of vehicles each having a radio card continuously enter the booth, and read data are transmitted to a processing unit of a booth through a read antenna in an order of entrance. In this case, the processing unit processes the read data in this order. The processed data are sent to a write antenna in the same order as the order of entrance and sequentially transmitted to the respective vehicles, and a radio card of each vehicle sends back write result data to the processing unit.
In a conventional storage medium processing system using radio cards, when vehicles pass the write antenna in the same order as an order of passage of the vehicles through the read antenna, the system is normally operated. However, after the processing of the vehicle #1 which firstly enters into the booth is completed, when a motorcycle #3 which thirdly enters into the booth passes the vehicle #2 which secondly enters into the booth and arrives at the write antenna earlier than the vehicle #2, since the card number of a radio card having read data is different from the card number of a radio card having data to be written in a conventional storage medium processing system, the radio card on the motorcycle #3 is not written with data. Thereafter, when the vehicle #2 arrives at the write antenna, the radio card on the vehicle #2 is written with data, and the processing unit attempts to transmit the written data to the motorcycle #3. However, at this time, the motorcycle #3 is out of a valid transmission/reception area, the data of the radio card on the motorcycle #3 cannot be processed. A vehicle #4 which fourthly enters into the booth and passing through the read antenna goes back or turns around and drops out of the line such that the vehicle #4 does not pass by the write antenna, the processing is not completed. As described above, in a conventional storage medium processing system, when an order of vehicles entering into the booth is not equal to an order of vehicles leaving the booth, processing cannot be completed.